Booking and expense technology provider Serko has hired as its VP of engineering Tarun Phaugat, who led engineering groups for both Uber's and Airbnb's corporate travel offerings, the company announced.
At Serko, Phaugat is leading innovation and modernization of Serko's platform, and he also has joined the leadership team for Booking.com for Business, for which Serko is the technology provider. In addition, Phaugat is leading growth at Serko's development hub in Bengaluru, India, which Serko established following its acquisition of GetThere from Sabre, as several GetThere employees were based there as a part of Sabre's Bengaluru technology hub.
Phaugat joins Serko from Uber, where he had been a head of engineering for about four years, including two with Uber for Business, and he previously had a similar title at Airbnb for Work. He also has had senior roles at both Apple and Microsoft, according to Serko. "We know that he will be a driving force to scale our ongoing innovation efforts, including our Indian Development Hub," Serko chief technology officer Simon Young said in a statement.
Serko has announced plans to invest $100 million in its technology platform over the next three years.